Machaka and a W9 bless

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by licker

Well to try and shore up some of the weaknesses being discussed here I tried an awake f4w9s6 glyph. Scales were 03H3S1G0M2D2 and I had a dominion of 5. This is with CBM as well.

There's your problem. CBM makes EACH step of Magic scale +/-1 Research. So with CBM, under Drain 2, you are -2 RP/mage. I think if you are only using your pretender to shore up early research, you may well have better results putting him to sleep for a year, and fixing that Drain. The first 12 turns will be a little slower research, but by the time he gets out, he can catch you up by your turn 20 deadline, and then your research will only be better, even as he is more free to do other things for you.

Since need for research doesn't tend to relax at all before turn 50, I look at higher Magic scale as GIVING me more mages. As the number you need in Labs to maintain a desired research rate is lowered, letting you use more in your armies. Otherwise you buy them, you hit shift-R, and you tell them to get comfortable.